Sexual orientation statistics

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The 2021 Census shows that:

• 80.4% of Oxford residents aged 16+ years are ‘Straight/Heterosexual’.
• The second largest group was ‘Bisexual’ with 3.6%, followed by ‘Gay or Lesbian’ with 2.4%.
• For gender identity, the 88.8% of respondents selected ‘Gender identity the same as sex registered at birth’.
• ‘Trans men’ and ‘Trans woman’ make up 0.4%, followed by ‘Non-binary’ with 0.2%.

Living arrangements

Census 2021 figures on living arrangements show that:

• Of usual residents aged 16+, 0.4% are married or in a civil partnership with a same sex partner and 0.8% are cohabiting as a same-sex couple.

Civil partnership formations

According to the Office for National Statistics, 72 same-sex civil partnerships were formed in Oxfordshire between 2016 and 2021, split roughly 47:25 between male and female partnerships. Given the smaller numbers of civil partnerships forming in Oxfordshire since 2016, there has been an uneven split between male and female civil partnerships formed per year, with only a year of even split, and other years seeing the majority of civil partnerships being male-only.

Same-sex marriages

In 2019, there were 64 same-sex marriages registered in Oxfordshire, 26 male and 38 female. Same-sex unions represented around 2.2% of marriages registered that year.  

Further information

Legal partnership and living arrangements summary report, 2021 Census, Office for National Statistics.

Civil partnerships statistics - Office for National Statistics.

Same-sex marriages - Office for National Statistics.